In the course of massive international migration, the family lives of older Peruvians have become increasingly transnationalized. Spatial separation had already marked the lives of Peruvian families’ decades before, when younger people moved from rural to urban areas in search of work and a better life. Children sending remittances to their parents in rural areas or grandparents taking care of grandchildren ‘left behind’ – these are not entirely new practices within Peruvian families. Yet, they have reached different quantity and quality in the context of international migration. For instance, the amount of remittances sent from abroad has a profound impact on the material wellbeing of family members in Peru. Social and cultural remittances also influence their lifestyles, customs and habits, for example, with regards to eating and clothing. Cheap calls and the development of ICTs facilitate these processes, as well as the creation of virtual family routines or family life in cyberspace (Greschke 2012; Nedelcu & Wyss 2016). Even with these new opportunities for long-distance social interaction, however, it ‘does not mean that place has become irrelevant or that distant or virtual care can replace proximate care’ (Baldassar et al. 2016b: 488).

The relevance of place becomes particularly evident when national borders have to be crossed in order to permanently or temporarily reunite with family members abroad. It is in these occasions that the human right to family (see, e.g., Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) collides with the nation state's exclusive sovereignty over its territory, as anchored in international law. The case studies in Chapter 5 have shown how entry rules in the form of visa regulations shape older Peruvians’ chances of participating in transnational family life. While some obtained mobility rights and slipped into the role of ‘flying grandmothers’ (Goulbourne & Chamberlain 2001), others involuntarily had to stay put. Thus, the most developed transportation infrastructure is of no help when you have the wrong passport or do not fulfil the visa requirements. From the nation states’ point of view, the restriction of cross-border mobility is an instrument to control irregular migration and avoid pressure on social security systems. It is based on the implicit assumption that people from less wealthy countries long for permanent settlement abroad.